


A Steady and Welcome Hand

by mydetheturk



Series: Intersection [2]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dissociation, Gen, Men Crying, Panic Attacks, Platonic Cuddling, Wano Arc (One Piece) Spoilers, aftermath of doffy beating the hell out of smoker post punk hazard, drakes an emotional mess and thats okay, except drake has no idea thats what it is, smoker is mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25156012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydetheturk/pseuds/mydetheturk
Summary: Drake hasn't seen either of his soulmates in far too long, when one of them almost dies. He doesn't handle it well. Black Maria is there for him, though.
Relationships: Black Maria & X Drake
Series: Intersection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/252511
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	A Steady and Welcome Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Five years later, we finally have more soulmate au stuff. Um. Yeah. It was only a matter of time before I wrote more soulmate au stuff since I got back into OP.  
> So yeah! There might be an aftermath on Hina's end; haven't decided yet but she definitely handles it better than Drake has - she's at least been in contact with Smoker within the last few years and also can go right to the source to find out what's going on.  
> No need to read Intersecting Sight - they're just set in the same universe, and the series is mostly for my sake, to keep track of all my Soulmate AU stuff. So enjoy!

The blues faded from Drake’s vision, pulling the purples towards red and greens towards yellow. It wasn’t a total fade, but it was enough to make Drake freeze where he was, breathing shallowly. That was… bad. An involuntary sound escaped his throat, a tiny little noise that had Black Maria ahead of him stopping where she was standing.

The flowers of her kimono were colored oddly now, washed out in ways that Drake had never wanted to know could happen.

“-le Drakeling?” Drake blinked, and suddenly Black Maria’s concerned face was just in front of him. He startled, taking half a step back.

“I’ve been calling for you for a few moments now, are you alright?” Black Maria asked. “You’re crying.” She reached one hand and gently brushed a single knuckle across one cheek. It came back with a faint glistening of tears.

Drake shook his head. He pulled a glove off and touched his other cheek just to discover he _was_ crying, just like she’d said.

“It. It’s nothing,” he croaked. He hadn’t wanted to even _speak_ , not when he was already like this. The colors weren’t fading any further but they weren’t _reappearing_ , _fuck_ what had happened?

The look on Black Maria’s face only grew more concerned. “It’s not nothing, little Drakeling,” she said. She held out her hand, and Drake grasped a finger, the touch grounding him. “Come. You’re not going anywhere like this.” Her touch was preventing a full blown panic attack, for which Drake was distantly grateful.

Black Maria guided him back to her rooms, a location that few had access too, even when one included the Flying Six. She chattered largely about nothing, her voice low and easy and pitched so that even if Drake wasn’t hearing the words themselves, too focused on how the colors hovered somewhere in desaturated tones, he could still hear her and stay in the present.

She said something about staying put, and Drake stopped. She gently – so, so gently – pried her finger from Drake’s bruising grasp. “Just a moment, little Drakeling.” Her fingers ran over Drake’s hair, stroking it out of his usual style.

Then she disappeared, and Drake was left alone with his thoughts.

Smoker was dying.

_Smoker_ was dying.

Smoker was _dying_.

His thoughts kept circling around that one key point, and when Maria’s door clacked open, Drake startled, twisting around and partially sliding into his Zoan form. Teeth sharpened, nails lengthened, and eyes narrowed. He snapped at the hand approaching him but didn’t connect – a warning rather than an actual attack.

“Shhh, little Drakeling,” Black Maria said. “It’s only me.”

Drake closed his eyes. “Sorry,” he whispered hoarsely. He opened his eyes and looked back at her with tears pooling and spilling over once more.

“It’s alright. Come.” Black Maria nudged him to her bed. Drake froze. “It’s only a bed, little Drakeling,” she said with a soft giggle. “Nothing will happen if you don’t want it.” Drake relaxed ever so slightly at that, sliding back from his Zoan form to fully human and letting Black Maria guide him to her bed. Black Maria lifted the blanket for her futon and gave Drake a tiny shove. “In,” she commanded.

Drake relented, dropping down and scooting close to the wall.

Then Black Maria slid into the bed behind him and Drake froze again. Tiny tremors wracked his body, and Black Maria shushed him lightly.

“Little Drakeling, look at me.” Drake rolled so that he was leaning slightly on one shoulder and could see Black Maria. She was propped up on one elbow with a serious look on her face. “I said nothing was going to happen if you didn’t want it. _I promise you_ , nothing will happen.” The look on her face grew grave. “On my crew, I swear, I will do nothing that you do not want.”

The words were reassuring in their familiarity, as much as Drake hated the thought.

“It will be okay, Drake.” Black Maria was between him and the door, and nobody was allowed in her rooms without her express permission. “It’s only us here.” Drake relaxed, little by little, tremor by nervous tremor. Black Maria hummed old sailing songs, gently running a finger up and down Drake’s back as he calmed.

By the time Drake had finally calmed fully, the colors were starting to return, saturating slowly, so slowly.

“There we are,” Black Maria murmured. There was a soft look on her face. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Drake shook his head and scrubbed at his eyes. “Not really,” he whispered.

“Okay. Take your time, little Drakeling.” Black Maria resumed her humming, her gentle touches.

It was a while before Drake spoke again; by that time, darkness had fallen and the room was bathed in twilight.

“Someone tried to kill my soulmate,” Drake whispered. Tears welled up once more and he started trembling again. Black Maria’s eyes went wide at the admission and her hand stilled, but she said nothing. “It. It’s not the first time but this time was _bad_.” Drake hid his face in Black Maria’s pillow. “I miss him.”

Black Maria said nothing for a few minutes. “You said tried,” she said eventually. Drake peeked one eye out so he could look at her. There was a soft smile on her face and a gentle look in her eye. “That means he _lived_ , little Drakeling.”

Drake sucked in a breath.

She was right.

Drake hiccupped a couple of times and the welling tears spilled over so that he was fully crying once more.

“I won’t ask who – I have a feeling you won’t say – but how long’s it been?” she asked.

“Too long,” Drake said between snuffles. He didn’t know for sure – four years? Maybe five? It’d blurred together at some point and Drake was just. Tired.

“Get some rest, little Drakeling,” Black Maria said. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

“What about you?” Drake whispered. He clung to one of Maria’s hands, reveling in her warmth.

“Don’t worry about me, little Drakeling.” The pad of her thumb gently caressed his cheek. “I’ll keep the others from finding you.”

Drake just swallowed and nodded. “Thank you.”

He closed his eyes and drifted off, feeling safe in the knowledge that Black Maria wouldn’t go back on her word and that somewhere Smoker was getting help and not dying.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find more at [my Tumblr](https://mydetheturk.tumblr.com), so feel free to stop by!  
> Stay safe everyone.


End file.
